Dusk to Dawn
by Lance Barter
Summary: This story isnt realy based on underworld, though instead is a compelling vampire story. FanFic realy needs ot make a vampire section. pls R&R. -.o'
1. The Sun

As the black fluid drained from the grey shape, Vance stood over it, the question "Why do they always bleed?" kept repeating in his mind. Though, it _was _good question, he never took the time to logicaly answer it. They were dead already, yes, so why did they bleed? It didnt matter though, he was used to it.

The smell, sight, even taste of it didnt bother him, just the color. A thick black tar oozed from the leathery corpses every time he stabbed them. They never made a sound though, that was the worst part of killing them, the lack of sound. It helped ease his consciounse though, no pleading made it easier to kill without remorse, even if they _were _already dead. Though something was different today, maybe the way wind made the leaves in the lone tree in the lot to his left, or the rusty door hinge creaking in the breeze, or the way the setting sun set everything on the street ablaze, wait, the setting sun?

He had fogotten, the sun was setting, it was atleast a quarter after seven,theyd be out in drozes in just a few moments. Vance looked down the road behind him, he thought he heard something, then, seeing a shadow ahead of him, whirled around to see the stumbling sea of gray flowing toward him. "Like clockwork." he though as he raced through the vacant lot to his left.

He ran through the waist high grass, and over a patch of concrete were a house had been, probably burnt in the last days of the world. As he slowly lost speed, due to fatigue and pain in right knee, he stopped, looked around, trying to catch his breathe. He eyed a dumpster, but saw it was minus a lid, he had to find a safe place, and fast.

The zombie like creatures that came on cloudy days and in the twilight of early night were easily taken, in small groups, not in hordes, though even the largest lake of these creatures was dwarfed by the cunning of the silver dead. The creatures that gave the night its terror, the creatures that, in the early days, been responsible for the disappearnces and curious deaths. No one had ever seen one of that kind, except Vance.

Vance was six foot three and weighed near two hundred and twenty pounds. He was much larger than the shrivled corpses that perverted his daily life, during the day that is. His face scraggly, except his upper lip and chin, which he kept shaven at all cost, to retain some shred of distinction from the white creatures that stalked in the shadows.

The 'Ivory Jet' as they were nicknamed before the end, were actualy the 'true' vampires, that is, the ones who retained there minds, though lost their humanity, in place of bloodlust. To them, the mere sight of the scarlet fluid bred insanity in their minds. Their hearts replaced with a hatred for the living, the ones who had forsaken them long ago, the days when Vance had not valued human life, friendship, or love, the days when the moon still shone.

The misty morning air smelled oddly bitter as Vance awoke. His eyes slowly opened as he remembered that hed taken refuge from the night inside a ventilation unit atop an old building. He pushed out the grating and stood up as the suns light breeched the horizon, filling his grey eyes with red beams. He held his hand in front of his face as he looked out over the city, or what was left of it.

In the last days before the darkness had come full circle, those still living set fire to the city in a last effort to retard the speed at which those who haunted the night moved across the blackening earth. The phantom steel beams and occasionl cement building were the only things still standing. Though, this too, had failed.

As Vance decended a fire escape on the sun side of the building, something was watching him, through cold eyes. Watching, waiting. As Vances boot hit the cement, the hair on the back of his neck pricked, and at this he pulled his club from his back, waiting. Vance slowly, attentively moved out the alley toward the pavement road. The thing watching got to its feet, grabbed hold of dumpster, and sent it hurdling at Vance.

Vance fell backwards to the ground, the dumpster barely missing him. Vance jumped back up as the dumpster smashed through the building behind him. He looked down the alley at the creature now moving in toward him. The creature, almost totaly black, eyes black like oil, lifted its torn wings and lifted itself into the air. "Move!" were the last words Vance heard as his head filled with night, and a stake from a crossbow across the street sailed, screeching, through the thick air, into the demonic creatures chest, instantly knocking it from the air, never to move again.

The sun was already set when Vance woke to the sound of a diesel engine rattling and chugging. Vance, blinkling, tried to lift his head, but set it back down due to a splitting headache. Vance moaned as he turned his head to see someone at the wheel, clean shaven with an emotionless face. "Hey..." Vance groaned closing his eyes again. "Oh, your awake, bout time. It didnt hit you that hard." The person at the wheel said. "Yah, thanks. Names Vance..." he closed his eyes again, another pain shot through his foggy head. "Heh, names Dirk, and this Cledus." the man said patting his dashboard.

It was another hour or so before Vance finaly could lean forward in his seat. Holding his head, he looked at the road ahead of him and realized they were stopped. Holding his head he opened his door and stepped out, to see Dirk standing next to the huge vehicle. The vehicle, Dirk called Cledus, was apparently some kind of military truck. It was atleast fifteen feet in height, thirty in length, with a large bed encased in metal. It was drab green, standard military color, and the wheels were about five foot tall each.

"So, where'd you get this beast?" Vance said, suddenly becoming aware that Dirk was holding a gun and looking keenly at the buildings around them. "Shhh..." he said pointing at a metal box on the side of the truck. Vance stepped to it, unlatched it with a 'thunk', and pulled out sub-machine gun. He himself started scanning the buildings around them.

They had been standing there for what seemed like a day and half when Dirk finaly let a shot off, moments later one of the grey, zombie like creatures fell out of a third floor window, to the pavement with a crack. Almost immediately a swarm of the creature descnded on the dead and tore it to bits as they fed. "They always bleed." Vance said. "Duck." Dirk said turning toward Vance. "Huh?" "MOVE!" Dirk shouted running at him and jumping over him as he ducked out of the way. Dirk pulled the trigger of his revolver again, sending another creature splattering against the pavement ahead of the truck.

"Get in!" Dirk shouted and Vance obliged. Dirk kicked the truck into drive and hit the accelerator, plowing over a few of the grey creatures and soon totaly out of sight of them. "I didnt think bullets killed those things." Vance said. "They dont, the others do." Dirk replied with a wry smile.

The rest of the ride was totaly davoid of sound except for the engines grumbling and the occasional rattle of something in the back of the truck. After driving through the suburbs and the country side, Vance asked the question that was burning in his mind, "Where are we going?" Dirk looked over, then back at the road., "Home."

"What?" Vance said startled, not having a 'home' in months. "One of the last human cities left, Gravionburg.", and with that, a huge wall was looming on the horizon with the sun setting behind it. "Beutiful."


	2. Those Eyes

Day was gone, replaced with what seemed like endless night. The smoke from the pits filled the skies with the thick, black smoke that flesh gave off. The smell, carried by the wind, was more than most people could stand. The bodies of those unfornate enough to have been bitten were burned in mass fires, and the still living, to stunned, scared, moved about like zombies, like the bodies they were burning.

"Vance. Vance gimme a hand." someone said as he staggered away from the fires. "Hey man, I need help." the voice said again. "We all do." Vance said coldy, walking on numb feet, as far from the life he was in as possible. "They'll get you before you can forget anything, and you'll be at the bottom of that pit tommorow, too." the voice said again. "Hell is hell, with or without flames." Vance mumbled, never looking back.

The first vampires were all woman, except for one. The first born vampires, there were only four in the beggining, had issued a challenge to the human world over national television in England, that was the fall of two-thousand and thirteen. No one listened until the queen and her sons were seen standing, grey and ghastly, next to the first born. Thats when everyone in Europe accepted the challenge. No one who left survived.

A whole nation turned to zombies living only for death, all but one, the secound born vampire, a male. The, now five, vampires moved to Germany, then Russia, and eventualy Canada. All fell with relative ease, to only five vampires. Nothing was effective, bullets, grenades, fire, crosses, stakes, garlic, running water, all failed.

In Canada, a third born vampire arose, this time a woman. She herself took the challenge to the Americas. Mexico, the US, all of South America, band together to fight, after a night of fighting, and thousands of casualties, the US used the nuclear option, completely destroying all of the noth-werstern United States. This, too, failed.

Seeing this, the rest of the world, coupled with every fallen man, woman, and child, assimilated into the undead horde, bowed down, and slaughtered like sheep. Though from the last fight, four vampires were born. These four, somehow, with a greater understanding and will, saw the evil that those before them were spreading, set to fighting the other six. This battle was decades long, and while the vampires fought, the humans rebuilt, and the undead multiplied and mutated.

The humans, preoccupied with the undead, gave no though to the battling vampires, making the mortal mistake of thinking them dead, continued repopulating. After a full hundred years, humanity had made no technical advances, instead only worried about repopulation. Europe, Russia, Germany, all those countries, were firmly undead nations. The rest of the world, excluding the poles, where the fearful and smart, was the livings.

The battle of the vampires, slowly growing more noticable by mortals, was drawing to an end, this was when the prime evil was born. The ten vampires invlolved, were fused by the might of the original male, and were all consumed in this new entity. The prime evil, given the name 'Rey' , challenged the heavens and the bowls of hell. What ensued was what survivors consider that last days of humanity.

Both heaven and hell, armies readied, came forth to do battle on the human plains. God, with his endless waves of shining, silver rimmed, Arch-Angels, and the godly warriors of old, the Paladin, took up arms on the northern side of Europe. Satan and his burning armies of Demons, took position in the south. Humanity, realizing the end was near, sided with whichever side they saw fit, and blindly stepped into the fires.

Rey tore all those who opposed him to smoldering ash. Being the thousands of feet in height, atleast a mile long, resembling a crab, with a human upperbody, and the head of serpent. After all the warriors on each side were burnt to ashes, God came worth, with Gabriel the Arch-Angel, and Satan with a she-demon by the name of 'Rathe', gave the creature Rey a last warning.

Rey, mearly laughing, encased in flames, burning eyes aflame, fought to the end. In the end God and Satan were gone, most likely to another realm or plain to start anew, giving up on this world. Gabriel and Rathe left to govern the world, soon descended to earth. Seeing so much destruction, lost faith in this world to. They bore two children. After their childrens birth they left to seal themselves away in the realms they once new.

The two children were twin sisters. They were born with the collective knowledge of the universe. They too, seeing the evil in the world, sought to live in peace. The scraps of humanity were once again rebuilding. The undead too, were rebuilding, though something was different, sinister. The soul of Rey had been dispersed back into nine souls, which then were born into demi-undeads, the offspring of demons and undead, and began spreading.

The one vampire soul not put to the undead, one of the first born females, was born to the world of the humans. She spread hate through the world of man and divided humanity into halves, one of the dark, one of the light. This created three sides. Undead, Good, and Evil. A Paladin, with his last moments, passed his soul to a son, who passed that power on through the generations. This gave the Good the edge it needed to survive the undead, not enough to fight, but to hold back and remain neutral.

Vance was the offspring of an evil mother and one of the heirs of the Paladin soul. Vance was born in the third dark age since the three sides were formed, in the midst of a battle between the undead and evil humans. His father had died early, and was raised by his mother, who later abandoned him for she saw the light in him.

Vance, now seventeen, had seen so much hate and evil, he grew weary of life, though plodded on, for something pulled at his soul, guiding him. He awoke, from the dream in which he had remembered the fires, and looked around to see a room. A white room with a small lamp in the corner and a window in the wall through which he could see the shades of black that meant night.

Vance slid his out from the bed and got to his feet. Not thinking of anything but his past, he leaned against the wall next to the window and could see the city, sprawling out toward the horizon. A sense of peace filled him, though a thought creapt into his mind. A thought of something elusive, something he couldnt describe or explain. Just as he began to think into it there was a knock at the door.

"Yes?" Vance said standing up straight. "I am with the New World Vanguard. My name is Lanette, may I come in?" the female voice responded. Vance, feeling something in the voice, moved toward the door and unlatched it. The door opened and an ocean of blue filled his eyes. He was lost in the calm blue of the womans eyes, he stood there numbly, barely aware of anything.

After standing in place stupidly for what was atleast a minute, Lanette moved into the room more and waved her hand slowly in front of her face. Vance, now aware of how foolish he must have looked, slowly ran his fingers through his hair and stepped back as Lanette entered, closing the door behind her.

As Lanette moved toward the window, Vance couldnt help but feel as if he knew those eyes. "You are Vance, no?" Lanette said, turning. Vance was once again washed in the warm blue of the womans eyes, though this time he wasnt mesmerised, instead, perplexed as to were he knew them from. "Yes, thats me." Vance replied, accostomed to not revealing more information than he had to.

"You are very special to us." Lanette said upfront. "Your blood flows with the spirit of an ancient good. We need the power of that spirit to help us battle the forces of evil and the undead." She continued. "I live for myself, you can forget me helping anyone. I owe a debt to the man who brought me here, though I owe no one else anything." with that Vance pushed Lanette aside to look out the window. "We'll see." With that, Lanette left and the door closed with a click.

The city slept restlessly below him, yet Vance felt at ease. Something about those eyes, those eyes...


End file.
